Arlen Specter....Looking Out For Arlen Specter

While there may be a need for some of the reforms in the behemoth financial services reform bill, Restoring American Financial Stability Act S 3217, being debated this month in Washington, one amendment offers our friends in the trial bar an opportunity to resume their attempt to overturn an important TWO Supreme Court cases to increase their ability to bring frivolous class action law suits - because clearly, we don't have enough frivolous actions already.

But who would offer such an amendment?...You guessed it one-time Republican Senator Arlen Specter (D..err R...err, D-PA) would overturn TWO US Supreme Court opinions and provide a private right of action for aiding and abetting securities fraud. The amendment essentially mirrors the Liability for Aiding and Abetting Securities Violations Act, S. 1551, introduced by Sen. Specter in 2009. The amendment (SA 3776) would legislatively overrule two decisions of the Supreme Court’’, namely the 1994 Central Bank of Denver v. First Interstate Bank ruling and the 2008 ruling in Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.

Those decisions reined in “scheme liability”—a theory of liability used by trial attorneys to circumvent securities laws. If adopted, it would have had dire consequences for investors and the economy. Appropriately named, “Scheme liability” would invite nearly any business that had a commercial relationship with any other company alleged to have engaged in fraud straight into Specter's new wheel house of trial lawyers; regardless of their knowledge of said fraud. In these perilous economic times, (soon to be former) Senator Specter has proven he is more than willing to expose a sizable portion of the economy to expanded liability in securities class actions that will hurt companies, their employees and injure investors - in the interest of satisfying his (new liberal) base.

The SEC already has the power to bring an action against companies that help to perpetrate a fraud, and they are aggressive in their prosecution of these types of cases. Congress should leave well enough alone and not hand the trial bar another tool to force legitimate law abiding businesses into multi-million dollar settlements.

But who knows...maybe Arlen will change his mind again....

New Haven Leaders Endorse Lamont-Glassman

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DeStefano Praises Lamont's Ideas and Experience

Ned Lamont accepted the endorsement of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and the New Haven Democratic Town Committee (DTC) at a news conference at the John C. Daniels School. New Haven DTC Chair Susan Voigt joined DeStefano in praising Lamont and Glassman's leadership and vision for Connecticut.



"Ned and Mary are the right choice to work with Connecticut's cities and towns to create jobs and improve education," said DeStefano. "They have the ideas and the experience to bring new energy to cities like New Haven and get our state moving in the right direction."



"Ned Lamont has the best plan to grow our economy and get Connecticut moving forward again," said Voigt. "He and Mary are the strong, principled leaders we need to shake up Hartford and get results for the people of Connecticut."

"For too long, our state government has been kicking the can down the road, and our cities have paid the price," said Lamont. "New Haven needs an advocate in Hartford, not an adversary. As governor I will work directly with municipal leaders like Mayor DeStefano to make sure Connecticut's cities and towns have the tools they need to create jobs, give our kids a quality education and make government work better for Connecticut families."

"As the leader of a small town, I know how difficult it can be for our cities and towns to work with Hartford," said Glassman. "I look forward to working with Ned and local leaders like Mayor DeStefano to improve public education, create jobs statewide and move Connecticut forward."

A wonderful piece about Mary Glassman in the Connecticut Mirror (read the whole article!):

Glassman, 51, is the environmental lawyer who unexpectedly became the first selectwoman of Simsbury, a suburb of 24,000 nestled in the Farmington Valley.

"I've always been an accidental candidate," Glassman said. "I've always been an accidental candidate from the day I entered public service."

That would be shortly after Labor Day weekend in 1991, when Simsbury's tiny Democratic Party was stunned to learn that its candidate for first selectman had quit the race.

Glassman's husband, Andy, attended the hastily-called Democratic Town Committee meeting to settle on a replacement.

"He came home and said, 'We found a candidate for first selectman,'" she recalled. "And he said, 'It's you.'"

It seemed a joke. Between them, they had two legal careers and two young children. And Mary, then 33, was pregnant with their third.

"I said, 'There's no way.' He said, 'Don't worry, you'll never win,'" she said.

Simsbury hadn't elected a Democratic first selectman since long before Glassman was born. And Glassman, who grew up in New Britain, hadn't been long in town.

She won. It was a fluke -- one that repeated itself in 1993, 1995 and 1997. After a voluntary break for a career at the State Capitol, she was elected again in 2007 and 2009.

and a video of the running mates:

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here

All budgets are plans for the future. The budget worked out between Gov. Jodi Rell and the leaders of the dominant Democratic Party in Connecticut’s state legislature, principally Speaker of the House Chris Donovan and President Pro Tem of the Senate Don Williams, will go to press a little more than two weeks before the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions to be held in Hartford on May 21-22.

There are no surprises in the budget, which patterns, with almost ridged precision, the template of past budgets in which gapping holes were filled with chewing gum and hopeful views of the future.

Democrats, heedless of the warning signs everywhere apparent, are convinced that a rising tide will in the near future lift all the boats, Connecticut’s little bark among them. Collectively, the Democratic legislative caucus is Pangloss, drawing hope from the future rather than the past.

Pangloss was a character developed by Voltaire in Candide who, despite the horrors inflicted upon him by cruel fate, continued to believe that the world in which he lived was “the best of all possible worlds.” Earthquakes, revolutions, mass executions were unable to detach Pangloss, Candide’s philosophical tutor, from his inviolable optimism. The loss of his beloved to bandits who raped and mutilated her finally convinced a weary Candide that his philosophical tutor was a bit too optimistic for Candide’s own good.

Operating on the Panglossian notion that tomorrow will be the best of all possible worlds, state Democrats and Rell have now put forth a budget that optimistically looks past what some more worldly Republicans and a handful on unblinkered Democratic legislators regard as the coming train wreck.

Almost half of Connecticut’s budget crater is to be filled by contributions from an administration in Washington that has, in the two years it has been in office, tripled the national debt. The real cost of the new programs initiated by the president and the dominant Democratic congress have not yet registered on the national economic seismograph. Public debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product has increased fourfold during the current administration.

Tin cup in hand, Connecticut has now become a beggar state. It is not alone.

And it is only a matter of time before cash poor Washington begins to treat beggar states in the same way large beggar corporations have been treated., Uncle Sam, himself indebted to foreign states from which he is borrowing heavily to meet his own obligations, surely would not be willing to give alms to wealthy states like Connecticut in the absence of budgetary proof that the state has instituted cost saving measures. New Jersey’s legislature, prodded by a cost conscious governor, has offered some proof that it is serious about controlling future spending.

Connecticut has not

There are no serious costs saving measures in Connecticut’s new budget. It is a budget that will satisfy pressure groups that control powerful legislative leaders in the House and Senate. It is a budget that answers the unstated question roiling in the minds of wealth producing entrepreneurs who, following others gone before them, will vote with their feet by either leaving the state or refusing to come here.

Even New Jersey will offer greener pastures to wealth generators than Connecticut.

In addition to providing a view to the future, Connecticut’s most recent budget is a reliable measure of the cowardice of politicians.

Nice ad from Mike Fedele

Must be the OTHER Mike Fedele, not the one who has been Rell's Lt. Governor for the past 4 years:

Lamont and Glassman Form Great Ticket

Democrats Ned Lamont and Mary Glassman announced today that they will run for governor and lieutenant governor together on a Democratic ticket. I think it's a great move by Ned, and will help him at the convention, in the primary, and in the general election.

Lamont and Glassman, the First Selectman of Simsbury and a former Democratic staffer in the Connecticut legislature, appeared together at Trinity-on-Main in downtown New Britain and pledged to work together to create jobs, improve education and reform state government.

Picture courtesy of Spazeboy at spazeboy.net.



"I come from the business world, where people are judged by the results they get, not the promises they make. Mary gets results," said Lamont. "And together Mary and I will work our hearts out to make sure that every child has the same opportunity- a great education and the chance to start a family, start a career, and start a business right here in their home state of Connecticut."

"I am proud to be here today as Ned Lamont's running mate because although we come from different parts of our state, with different experiences - we share the same vision," said Glassman. "We will create a partnership that will bring bold and creative changes to government - with a focus on helping businesses grow and creating jobs, supporting towns and cities in educating the next generation of children and helping everyone achieve their piece of the American dream."

Lamont and Glassman made their announcement in New Britain, Glassman's childhood home and the location of Connecticut Central State University, where Lamont serves as a professor.

Here's Mary with Ned earlier in the campaign:

Bellweather Republican Elction

In Fairfield, the endorsement of Republican candidates occurs at an open caucus of all registered Republican. This has caused considerable controversy. In most cases if there is a contest, it is followed up by a second election, a primary, with exactly the same candidates and eligible voters.

The election this year is particularly interesting because the Republican establishment has unanimously endorsed one of the candidates, Brenda Kupchik, while the other, Chris DeSanctis, seems to be the darling of the tea-party wing.

Odd Oz

The Republicans are enjoying what Joe Markley calls, "an embarassment of riches" as it regards our numerous gubernatorial candidates.

Not all however are what we would consider good Republicans.

A perfect case in point would be R. Nelson "Oz" Grieble, who on Thursday April 29th speaking before the Bristol Chamber of Commerce said:
"Whatever anyone might think of Dodd, the longtime senator has been a very effective, powerful voice for the state in Washington."

Griebel, who is taking a leave from his job as president and chief executive officer of the Metro Hartford Alliance has put his money where his mouth is too, having contributed 1000's to Dodd over the years and to several others as well.

While supporting those we agree with is an honorable action, Republicans should be aware of just who it is Grieble does agree and thus support; and it's not a good picture for a Republican candidate for the state's highest office.